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Victory in Virginia for Alicia's Law |
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"House Appropriations Committee chairman Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, said he got a call from Alicia's mother and parents from Memphis, Tenn., Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., and California. Each urged legislators to bolster the funding..."
-Associated Press
(MARCH 14, 2008) Portland, Oregon... you know who you are.
You're another PROTECT member who helped flood the Virginia statehouse with phone calls for Alicia's Law. In a close, see-saw fight that caused a $78 billion budget negotiation to grind to a halt, who can say it wasn't your call that tipped the balance?
Last night, the Virginia legislature voted to appropriate $1.5 million to combat exploding child exploitation. First among the backers of the legislation was Delegate Brian Moran, who stood by the side of 19-year old Alicia Kozakiewicz throughout what became one of PROTECT's toughest state battles in recent years. From the trenches, it was clear Moran is the right stuff when it comes to fighting sexual predators. Other leaders behind the legislation include Sen. Creigh Deeds (D), Del. Beverly Sherwood (R) and Del. Phil Hamilton (R).
The funding, which was the heart of Alicia's Law, will go to Virginia's two Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces. It will be used to get local police and sheriff's departments into the business of combatting child exploitation, use new technology to target child pornography traffickers and Internet predators, and find and rescue children.
Among the campaigners who joined Alicia on the ground in Richmond were Sheriff Mike Brown, who heads the Southern Virginia ICAC, PROTECT national advisory board member David Keith and Alicia's mother Mary Kozakiewicz, a founding member of the Surviving Parents Coalition (SPC). The SPC has emerged as a national leader on the issue of child exploitation, calling for authorities to use new technologies to track perpetrators back through the Internet and rescue children. Virginia crime victim advocate Joan Fenton was critical in mobilizing the entire Virginia effort.
An impressive online coalition came together to pound on budget conferees, including The Virginia Family Foundation and a network of political bloggers, including Not Larry Sabato, Raising Kaine, 750 Volts, VB Dems and Fred2Blue.
Virginia now becomes the third state where PROTECT has succeeded in winning state funding for anti-child exploitation efforts. Existing ICAC task forces in all 50 states are funded by small federal grants from the Department of Justice. While that program has been an enormous success (creating an emerging infrastructure for law enforcement) state and local investment and leadership is now desperately-needed. California and Tennessee both entered the ICAC arena last year, and PROTECT plans to work for new resources in North Carolina in the coming months.
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The PROTECT Lobby
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Our Mission
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The National Association to Protect Children is a national, pro-child, anti-crime membership association. We are founded on the belief that our first and most sacred obligation as parents, citizens, and members of the human species is the protection of children from harm.
PROTECT is a bipartisan pro-child, anti-crime lobby whose sole focus is making the protection of children a top political and policy priority at the national, state and local level.
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